Samsung sues newspaper over negative report on Galaxy S5

March 27, 2014: An employee shows Samsung's Galaxy S5 smartphone at a mobile phone shop in Seoul, South Korea.
(AP)

Samsung’s new flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S5, goes on sale at the end of this week, and the company would prefer you only had positive thoughts in your mind when you go to check one out. It’s so intent on this, it has sued a Korean newspaper following the publication of a negative report, where the S5’s camera was criticized.

The paper in question is ETNews, a well-known source for industry news and gossip, and the lawsuit’s existence was broken by Media Today, another Korean publication. From the translation, it appears Samsung asked for the story on alleged problems with the S5’s camera to be retracted, saying the article was untrue. ETNews refused, so Samsung fired up its legal team.

A lawsuit was then filed, asking for damages in the region of $300,000. In a statement, Samsung says “the publication of false claims can hugely damage our business and brand value.” Apparently, it made a “number of requests for the information to be corrected,” but they were allegedly ignored, resulting in the “last resort” of legal action. ETNews says the “story fits the facts,” and adds reporters are fact checked each day.

What is all the fuss about? Samsung says it’s worried that in addition to the report stunting home sales, the negative story could go viral outside of Korea, and affect early international Galaxy S5 sales too. The irony is, without a lawsuit, the story probably wouldn’t have gained the same degree of attention, and far fewer people would have been wondering about a supposed camera issue with the Galaxy S5.

Samsung’s legal team is already in the midst of another, well publicized lawsuit. Over the past few days, the Korean company has been facing its old adversary Apple in a Californian court, where it is again accused of infringing certain patents.